S. KOREAN COAST­GUARDS FIRE AT CHI­NESE TRAWLERS

SEOUL: South Korean coast­guard ves­sels have, for the first time, fired ma­chine guns against Chi­nese boats il­le­gally fish­ing in Korean wa­ters, an of­fi­cial said yes­ter­day. There were no ca­su­al­ties re­ported from the in­ci­dent on Tues­day. Coast­guard of­fi­cial Kim Jung-Shik said the or­der to fire came dur­ing a stand-off with 30 Chi­nese fish­ing boats op­er­at­ing near the South’s Yel­low Sea bor­der with North Korea. “They tried to ram our ships although we re­peat­edly warned them,” Kim said. “I thought our of­fi­cers would be in dan­ger if I al­lowed any more re­sis­tance so we ended up us­ing the crew ser­vice weapon.” – AFP